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POEM 



DELIVERED AT THE TENTH ANN I VERS AR"2 OF THE 



CalUopmn 0onetg 



BY THE LATE 



J. AUGUSTUS SHEA, 

ON TUESDAY, AUGUST 5. 1845. 




KeiD-f ork: 

W. H. GRAHAM, 160 NASSAU STREET. 

1845. 






POEM, 



DELIVERED AT THE TENTH ANNIVERSARY OF 

^l)t iHalliopean Qodt% 

SUFFIELD, CONN., 

ON 



TUESDAY EVENING, AUGUST 6th, 1845, 
BY THE LATE 



J. AUGUSTUS SHEA 



NEW YORK: 
W. H. GRAHAM, 160 NASSAU STREET. 

1845. 






1rYV.'K\M.JUU %?JL< 



24 SW 



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The following Poem^from the pen of the late J. Augustus 
Shea^ Esq.j is published by the request of the Society before 
which it was delivered. 



POEM 



'T WAS not a dream of sleep, but one of those 
That rise upon the awakened Mind's repose. 
When Thought comes calmly to the breast, 
And lulls it into philosophic rest — 
One of those visions whose ethereal flame 
Kindleth a fondness for the human name — 
Love of the parent-Past — a rapture source, 
Whence well-directed Mind derives her force ! 
'T w^as such the inquiring Newton's soul inspired 
Such, too, the starry Galileo fired ; 
Such the bold sail of Enterprise unfurled. 
Seeing afar an undiscovered world ; 
Guided Columbus o'er the Western foam. 
Gave Earth a world and Liberty a home ! 

It was such dream, such vision of desire — 
A fragment of the soul's Promethean fire. 
That led me, humble, with no thoughtless way. 
The march of Time and Nations to survey : 



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What that and these through centuries have gained, 

Of wisdom what is lost and what retained ! 

And daring retrospectively to trace 

From its high source, our destmy of race. 

Holding the reflex of departed rays 

To cast on these the contrast of those days, 

And thus to estimate how true to Heaven 

Those trusts sublime so bountifully given, 

" Have we," I asked, " improved upon their time. 

And by our Present reverenced their sublime ? — 

Have we of Letters seized the destined good, 

And used the golden treasure as we should ? 

Where is the giant Chivalry of truth 

That dared and died for the Athenian youth]? 

What mighty Spirit have our schools sent forth 

To teach our Race their dignity of worth ; 

To show to man their fearlessness of use. 

And loosen bondage by its own abuse ?" 

Alas ! alas ! alas ! my conscious mind 

Shrank from reply, and blushed for human kind ! 

Bear with me, friends ! I seek not to gainsay 
That Science well hath walked the milky way. 
That crowned iEoLus half resigns his trust. 
As Science, far more royal, says *' he must !" 
Nor yet to question that the fiery flame 
Science hath made so beautifully tame ; — 
That space is measured not by breadth but time. 
Thus rendering simplicity sublime : — 



I know that Science, high in heavenly birth. 
Hath boldly thrown a girdle round the earth. 
Not in the time the Bard of Avon, singing 

Of fairy land, and bold, Parnassian plan. 
But to our wnromantic real bringing 

The knowledge, power, and godliness of Man — 
Not end to end " in forty minutes" brought. 
But linked by electricity of Thought ! 

Not all these triumphs — ^wondrous as they are, 

O'erleaping in their strength astonished years, — 
Treading her circuit with the evening star. 

Or, sitting, as a guest, among the spheres— 
Not these so much my wonder wakes as this. 
That Man so little knows of human bliss : — 
That Christian and Philosopher have found 
Nothing to lift the toil-worn from the ground ; — 
To teach the million their gigantic might — 
To crush the wrong and vindicate the right. 
This were the triumph ! palmier far than all 
That ever led to nation's rise or fall. 
From Macedonia's phalanx to the sway 
Of him who leveled empires in our day. 

Why should not mankind ev'n as brothers be, 
In confidence and love if not degree ? 
Make rank the meed of merit, here or there, 
But each man independent in his sphere ? 
That each, as ordered by high Heav^en, should be^ 
On his own freedom-hallowed acre, free ; 



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At morn or eve enjoy, by lawn or glade, 
The bliss his own rewarding Labor made. 
Delight the lingering moments with a page 
Inspired by Wisdom and approved by Age ? 
Fondly to see his child's expanding brow 
With joy illumined — clouded not as now 
With toil that never welcomes in the morn, 
And wears its sorrows as for sorrows born. 
While every thought, enervate and confined. 
Dares not to feel emancipated Mind. 

Oh, ye who Learning love and venerate. 
Behold the lofty life ye can create ; 
How ye can yet direct the human race. 
True to themselves, their destined rights to trace — 
As mariners do their courses on the chart. 
And know their path of travel ere they start — 
To see where Sctlla and Charybdis stand. 
And, boldly right, leave one on either hand ; 
Thus, true to God, his love and power attest. 
And, doing this, let Him direct the rest. 
To reach this sacred end were Letters brought, 
Records of Soul — embodiment of Thought— 
Those winged messengers that hourly bear 
The power of Thought to either hemisphere ! 

But Thought is pregnant or with guilt or good : 
God, Letters used, that Law be understood ! 
When on Sinai His dread commandments shone. 
Bequeathed 'mid thunders, lettered mto stone ; 



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As though upon His people to impress. 
At once their mission and their lastingness! 

No matter whether skilled in classic lore, 
Matured by fountains, sacred held of yore, — 
Or by Olympus, home of Gods divine, 
Or PiNDus of AcRocERAUNiAN line. 
Or Tempe, vale of never-fading flowers. 
Where fond Peneus dallies with the hours. 
By fragrant pastures and Thessalian shades. 
And woos the loves of the Pelasgic maids ; 
Or cradled under some less classic sky. 
Where Labor feels the panting hours go by. 
And anxious waits the evening's tardy close 
To lay his weary limbs in brief repose — 
No matter what conditions. Letters call. 
To meet their mission, trumpet-tongued, on all ; 
Not to bid murderous warfare stain the earth. 
And hail on reeking shrines Bellona's birth ; 
Or tell the Poor — God help them ! — they must be 
Not heirs of Heaven, but tools of butchery ! — 
No ! such is not their mission ! Letters came 
For holier end — beneficence of fame — 
And uses broad as Earth's encircling span, 
And brotherhood of Universal Man. 

But how shall we fulfil our sacred trust, 
An(J thus aspire beyond unliving dust, 
Holding in view the grandeur of design 
That made our souls above the stars to shine ? — 



10 



Where shall the task begin'? — where strike a path 
While Social chaos such confusion hath ? 

First, then, to Woman — mother of our race-^ 

The first who smiled upon our infant face — 

Who rocked the cradle of our earliest sleep. 

Where angels loved with her their watch to keep, — 

Hope in each gaze and love in each caress. 

And both the ecstatic bliss of lovingness-— 

To Woman— by whose side we loved to walk. 

And with our youth's romance delight to talk. 

By moonlight mingle soul with soul> and weave 

Visions so splendid they could not deceive — 

To whom at home we look with such delight 

That Fancy pauses in her charmed flight. 

And sees her brightest star of promise fade 

In the full light by Love and Beauty made. 

Where Home can see no cloud, below, above. 

Looks into heaven and feels that all is love^- 

To Woman, who of mankind's destiny 

Holdeth the guiding thread, let justice be ! 

Then will she train her children, till the fire 

Of Truth will purify each young desire. 

And, fed by her, in other days will find 

A worthy shrine within a master mind ; 

Thus — thus will nations hail heroic men, 

Give Freedom hearts and Virtue souls again. 

• 
Now turn we to the Pride of other days 

When War was just, and Freedom sang his praise— 



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To tlie chivalric Massachusetts' state- 
lier sons of Peace benevolently great, — 
Her Woman cohort— Chapman in the van. 
Teaching how Peace can most ennoble Man — 
Braves who abjure the right to ensanguine fields, 
Where Earth to Man her harvest bounties yields— 
Who feel that Man, if Man but Man v^^ill be. 
Can rule the world by Moral Rivalry, 
Theirs are the souls that see no splendid fame 
That stains one record with a blood-red name. 
Theirs are the souls P ve loved since Time began 
To reverence the lofty name of Man — 
Man whom in Eden angels loved to see. 
But lesser than themselves in bright degree ! 
These are the spirits we must emulate. 
Good to be wise, and peaceful to be great ! 

Next, strong in peace and wisdom, seek we now. 

To bend and elevate the alternate brow. 

As Labor will invite and Leisure wait. 

Hailing the world to dignity of state : 

Wield we that high decision of the mind, 

Lofty though humble — rugged though refined ; 

That stands upon its right as on a rock. 

Braves the opposing surge and breaks the shock ; 

Deeply foundationed, lifts its giant form. 

And stands, a chief, superior to the storm. 

Until, our inner life colossal made, 

The earth shall know us by our reach of shade. 



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" When God lets loose a thinker," of right things, 
*' The solid lumber of the world takes wings ;" 
And leaves the world harmoniously young, 
As when the stars their song together sung ; 
Then be ye thinkers, that ye too can claim 
Of Knowledge both the nature and the name ; 
Be up as Men with Learning's flag unfurled, 
Give force to Thought and freedom to the world ; 
Press onward — upward — ever tow' rd the sky. 
And be " Excelsior" still your gallant cry, 
" Palmam qui meruit ferat /" let this be 
At every step your soul of rivalry ! 
Next flee — I pray you flee the treacherous schools 
That teach beyond the wisdom of the rules ; — 
Expel sweet Charity, and in her place 
Make Bigotry the Goddess of our Race ; 
Hatred her maid of ceremonial feast, 
And red-browed War her sacrificial priest ! 
Abjure them and their lessons — Justice needs 
Not such to soothe antagonistic creeds ; 
For heav'nly Justice such a power can give, 
That each to all in brotherhood can live. 
While Virtue and her altars will attend — 
Virtue at once her champion and her friend ! 
Millions will worship, in not distant days. 
Around her shrine, and sing her hymn of praise. 
Intelligence, the soul of Letters, thus 
Avenged for years of Vandal wrong will rise, 



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A spirit of immortal good, from us. 

And vindicate our deeds beyond the skies. 
While thus the wealthy their expanding breast 
Will open to the rights of the distressed. 
Those will more happy — these less numerous be, 
And all be all to all while all mre free ! 

Fain would I still to other them-es invite 
Links of one subject — lengthening to unite ; 
But needless here the task where letters came 
To realize th-e moral of my dream. 
Yet still one claims our duty and our pride. 
One with whose life our own is close allied. 
One which, when w^e are gathered to our sires, 
Will kindle Earth wdth its eternal fires — 
She who for Freedom waved the fearless brand 
Along the Western world — Columbia's land. 
Has she not trumpeted the electric word. 
Which into life the sheeted dead have stirred ; 
Floats not her flag of enterprise afar. 
Hailed by the morning and the evening star, — 
Great, like Minerva, from her pulse of birth. 
The pride of Heaven, and wonder of the Earth — 
And more — the mother of Earth's noblest one. 
Her only universal — Washington ! 

Thus — Man to Man awakened — I recline, — 
Upon this honor— gloriously mine. 



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